


The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow On A Brand New Day

by gansey_is_our_king



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: But Maybe A Little Hopeful Too?, By Which I Mean So Much Ronan Angst, F/M, M/M, Pre-Epilogue, So much angst, TRK spoilers, This Is So Sad I'm Sorry, idk - Freeform, post-trk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 10:57:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8283421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gansey_is_our_king/pseuds/gansey_is_our_king
Summary: His nerves were shattered.  Gansey had died.  He was alive now—because Cabeswater had been sacrificed and the demon was destroyed—but he had been dead before.  Inside his head, Ronan could still see him sprawled in the wet grass.  
Not moving.  Not breathing.  
Nothing. 
His hands shook and did not stop shaking all the time that it took him to drive the BMW back to Henrietta.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot was initially written a few months ago. It was supposed to be part of my post-trk series, but I couldn't get it right, so I got frustrated and then promptly forgot it existed. It reappeared a few days ago and screamed for a rewrite. Here is the finished product. It ties in almost directly with my series if you're interested, but it can be read as a stand-alone too!

His nerves were shattered. Gansey had _died_. He was alive now—because Cabeswater had been sacrificed and the demon was destroyed—but he had been dead before. Inside his head, Ronan could still see him sprawled in the wet grass.

Not moving. Not breathing.

Nothing.

His hands shook and did not stop shaking all the time that it took him to drive the BMW back to Henrietta. He parked next to the curb outside 300 Fox Way, because it seemed like the most obvious destination after everything that had happened to them. Henry pulled his Fisker in behind the BMW.

  
Rain drummed on the windshield.

  
Ronan watched with a sort of dull disconnect as Maura and Calla burst from the house and hurried down the front path to the car. Blue let out a soft cry before she shoved open her door and scrambled out. In the rain, she hugged her mom and Calla, and Ronan could hear their lilting voices even though the words were muffled inside the BMW. The windows were still rolled up. Through the streaked glass he could see that the three women formed a many-armed, many-legged monster tangled together with relief and happiness.

  
After a minute or so, Gansey climbed out too.

  
Ronan looked in the back of the car, where Orphan Girl waited. She had her nose pressed to the window. Her warm breath fogged across the glass, and as Ronan watched she reached over and drew in the condensation with her index finger. It was a familiar shape. Three narrow curving lines that intersected.

  
He had seen it before. Gansey had sketched the obscure symbol over and over in his journal.

  
Beside him Adam made a sudden but quiet noise.

  
Ronan looked at him, and then he looked out the front windshield, where Gansey met his gaze. There was a silent question in his eyes.

  
_Is this okay? Is it okay if we stop here?_

  
Ronan nodded.

  
Inside the house it was quiet and still. This struck Ronan as odd. 300 Fox Way had never been quiet or still before. It was like the demon had leeched inside the walls and permeated the air all around them—and even though he knew that was impossible, because the demon was gone, he shivered a little at the possibility.

  
Blue led them down the narrow hall to the kitchen.

  
Ronan hesitated there. He had grabbed his phone from the cup holder before he locked the car behind them, and now, when he checked it, there were five missed calls on the screen, all from the same number.

  
Declan.

  
Gansey looked at him. “Ronan?”

  
The unspoken question hung between them.

  
_Are you okay? Can I help?_

  
Ronan swallowed the lump in his throat, his chest clenching up.

  
“Fine. I just…” He paused and held up his phone. “I have to check on Matthew.”

  
“Oh.” Gansey nodded. “Right. Well then. Let me know if…” He stopped and then offered Ronan a tight smile before he followed Henry to the kitchen table and sat down there. Chainsaw swooped over in his absence. Ronan startled as her claws, sharp and cold, gripped his shoulder where she landed. He reached over to stroke the smooth feathers down her spine. She pressed her side to his neck and called out.

  
From the kitchen, Orphan Girl imitated the sharp noise.

  
“Kerah!”

  
Ronan dialled and then pressed the phone to his other ear while Chainsaw plucked at the faded leather straps tied around his wrist. The line rang once, twice, and then there was a small click as Declan answered.

  
“Ronan?”

  
“Is Matthew okay?”

  
His voice sounded hoarse and thin. He leaned his back to the terrible wallpaper.

  
Declan let out a breath, a tired sigh. “Yes. He is now. What happened to you there?”

  
Ronan hesitated. Then he simply said, “Gansey.”

  
“Hm.”

  
“Tell me what happened to Matthew?”

  
“Ronan.”

  
“Tell me. I need to know.”

  
Declan sighed. “Okay. Well. He was… something was wrong with him. He was fine one minute and then the next time I looked around he was on the floor, writhing around, twitching. There was black stuff coming from his nose and ears. I thought he was going to die. He was dying. I tried to call you.”

  
“I know. I was… kinda busy.”

  
There was a beat.

  
Declan added, “I think he’ll be fine now.”

  
Ronan nodded. He swallowed.

  
“Is everyone else okay?” Declan asked.

  
“Yeah. But—” Ronan stopped. He did not want to say it. He could not say it.

  
His pulse raced beneath his skin.

  
Chainsaw croaked next to his ear and rubbed her beak across his hand when he reached back over to stroke her head. He squeezed his eyes shut. He could hear the low vibration that were the voices in the kitchen.

  
“What?” Declan said. His voice was brittle. Impatient.

  
He had no idea.

  
He had not guessed.

  
Ronan sucked in a deep breath and pressed his the back of his head to the wall.

  
“Mom’s dead,” he said.

  
“What?”

Declan's voice was sharp.  It cut through Ronan like a knife. 

  
“She died. She was in Cabeswater… and whatever it was that was there… it killed her.”

  
Ronan’s hand shook as he rubbed it across his face.

  
Chainsaw snapped at the leather sliding down his wrist but then desisted when he pulled away from her beak. He clutched the phone close to his ear. His heart raced in his chest and there was a lump stuck in his throat. His eyes burned with hot tears, but he blinked them back.

  
Not here. Not now.

  
“Ronan.”

  
“I saw her. She was dead.”

  
Declan sighed. The sound was long and loud.

  
“I have to tell Matthew. Unless you want to do it.”

  
“No.”

  
“No, what?”

  
“You can… you can do it. If you think—”

  
“I do. He has to know.”

  
Ronan nodded, the movement slow and jerky. Declan could not see him, but Ronan guessed that his brother understood that his silence on the phone line was grudging acknowledgement of the situation, if not quite agreement.

  
“Do you want me to come down?” Declan asked. “I mean. Do you think… is it safe?”

  
Ronan knew what he really meant.

  
_Is it safe for Matthew, or I am risking him again?_

  
He nodded again. “Yeah. I think so.”

  
“I can leave now.”

  
“No.” Ronan hesitated. Tried to swallow. “Not tonight. I just—I have to figure stuff out.”

  
“Fine. Tomorrow. I can leave in the morning.”

  
“Okay.”

  
“Good. Well.” Declan paused, and when he spoke again his voice was quieter, and also a lot more gentle than Ronan ever remembered hearing it before. “Get some sleep. See you when I get there.”

  
Ronan took a shuddering breath. “See you.”

Declan ended the call.

  
Ronan stood there for a moment and listened to the white noise crackling in the dead line. His heart thudded in his chest. He could hear voices and clattering and the scrape of chairs from the kitchen. When he strained to listen, he realized that Gansey was explaining what had happened with Glendower. His voice was hollow and somber.

  
Ronan wondered how all this had made him feel.

  
He knew that, personally, he was gutted with exhaustion.

  
He touched the sore bruises around his throat. The marks that Adam had made with his stolen hands as the demon tried to kill him. He had been sure he would die. He had been sure that Matthew would die. But it was his mother and Cabeswater that were the casualties in this war. Two dreams that had been pulled from the mind to exist in the real, brutal world.

  
Chainsaw let out another croak and swooped away down the hall.

  
Ronan sighed low and quiet.

  
His chest ached. His heart ached.

  
He slipped his phone in his pocket and went to sit at the kitchen table, sinking down in the chair beside Adam. That earned him a quick glance from Gansey and another from Blue, before Gansey continued the story. Adam did not look over at him, but he shifted a little in his chair, so Ronan guessed that the other boy knew he was there. Chainsaw had settled on his shoulder. She turned her head and regarded Ronan over his head as Gansey continued the story. 

  
His voice was short and brittle.

  
Blue twisted some hair between her fingers.

  
Adam was rigid in his seat. Ronan reached over underneath the table, and brushed his fingers across bruised knuckles. Adam flinched, violent and sudden, but then relaxed slightly. He moved so that his foot was resting underneath his chair, and Ronan moved so that his foot was there too, their ankles touching. He could feel the electric brush of skin on skin in the gap between his jeans and sneaker. The bare strip was warm and smooth.

  
It grounded him.

  
It whispered a silent promise.

  
_I am here. I will be here tomorrow._

  
Ronan picked at his leather straps.

  
Chainsaw pressed close to Adam, who reached over to stroke her head with one finger.

  
Gansey talked.

  
It was going to be okay. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone that read this! I hope you all enjoyed the angst and feels... check out even more in my other stories on here if you haven't already :) You can also hit me up on tumblr: @alliwannadoiswrite. I mostly just reblog Pynch and other TRC related trash there.


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